CIVIL RIGHTS VOICES Rosa Parks When I made that decision I knew I had the strength of my ancestors with me A pioneer in the civil rights movement Rosa Parks was born in 1913 in Tuskegee Alabama She became an activist in Montgomery in the 1940s Her actions sparked the Montgomery Bus Boycott After the boycott Parks moved to Detroit Michigan She continued to work for civil rights She died in Detroit in 2005 at the age of 92 6 rooms trains and much more State laws prevented African Americans and whites from mixing The laws limited the rights of African Americans They were treated as second-class citizens by whites In Montgomery the first ten seats of a bus were reserved for white passengers Other states had laws about bus segregation too including Arkansas Florida Georgia Louisiana Mississippi Oklahoma Tennessee and Texas African Americans had to sit at the back of the bus and could not enter through the front door On December 1 Parks
Rosa Parks Segregated Bus Seating This diagram shows where Parks sat in the bus when she was arrested in 1955 How does seeing this seating diagram help you understand the description of Parks’s protest Does it help you understand how African Americans may have felt obeying the segregation laws at the time bought her ticket boarded through the back door and sat just behind the white section After three stops more white people boarded the bus The white section filled up and one white man had no place to sit Bus drivers had a lot of power and carried guns The bus driver that day was 7
a white man named James F Blake He was known by people in the city for being a bigot which is a person who dislikes members of a particular group He often played a cruel trick on African-American passengers He would give them their tickets and then drive off before they had time to board at the back door On that evening Blake approached the row where Parks sat African-American passengers occupied all four seats in the row Blake told them Move y’all I want those two seats At first no one moved Silence gripped the packed bus The bus driver insisted again ordering Y’all better make it light on yourselves and let me have those seats Slowly the three other passengers in Parks’s row stood up and moved to the back of the bus All the colored seats were now taken Parks remained seated moving instead to the seat by the window She was not angry but she was determined This was an opportunity her chance to take a stand against unfair laws and treatment of African Americans 8
Previous Problems Parks had issues with James F Blake the bus driver before In 1943 Parks tried to board Blake’s bus from the front door African Americans had to buy their tickets at the front Then they had to exit the bus and board through the back door But the bus was full and Parks could not enter through the rear door Parks insisted on boarding at the front Blake told Parks to get off his bus When she refused he began pushing her Parks finally exited by herself warning Blake not to hit her She did not board his bus again until December 1 1955 9 The bus driver asked Parks if she too was going to move When Parks told him she would not move Blake said he would have her arrested Parks simply responded You may do that Aftermath of the Arrest With her resulting arrest Parks sparked the Montgomery Bus Boycott Her quiet peaceful action spoke loudly It echoed across the country The boycott led to more nonviolent direct action protests and eventual legislative wins in the civil rights movement of the United States
